Sigma 24mm

swintonphoto

Anyone used the Sigma 24mm 1.8 EX DG Aspherical macro? 24mm is just about the sweetspot for the 4/3 system for a good focal length in my opinion. With the 2x crop factor its just about at the classic 50mm of the old 35mm days. Seems like it would be a good large fstop lens. Any thoughts?

Tee Why

It's an older design and similar to the Sigma 28mm f1.8 macro model.
I've had the 28mm and currently have the 20mm and my buddy has the 24mm version for a Pentax.

It's AF is a touch noisier on a Canon mount but more quiet on a Pentax and also a Nikon mount, perhaps b/c it's AF is driven by the body instead. It can hunt more in low light than a new lens design though and the front element extends out (does not rotate) with focusing. You have a dula clutch mechanism where you pull back the MF ring and click the AF/MF button on Canon's to go from AF/MF which is a bit cumbersome (different mounts may not have this)

Optically and in use, I found the 28 (24 uses the same basic design) to be very good on a cropped body. The best thing about the lens is that you can get really close to almost touching the subject with the lens hood and get dramatic compositions that other fast wide primes do not allow. If you can live with the old design and a heavy weight of this lens in return for the optics and the good price, it's great buy in my book.

Here is a test of the 28mm, and my buddies shots with the 24mm.
http://tomyi.smugmug.com/gallery/2000895#114325968
http://www.pbase.com/alinla/sigma_24

swintonphoto

I found this review - looks pretty good!
http://www.popphoto.com/cameralenses/325/superspeed-sigma-trio.html

Internaut

Focus hunting....
With respect to focus hunting, on my Sigma 30mm, I find this is improved if I switch off continuous shooting and continuous AF.

swintonphoto

Internaut wrote:

With respect to focus hunting, on my Sigma 30mm, I find this is improved if I switch off continuous shooting and continuous AF.

That's good. My experience with practically all my lenses is that the focus hunting decreases when I keep it in single mode instead of continuous AF.